Film News (23/05/09)

This week all the movers and shakers are at Cannes, hobnobbing with Brad and Angie on the Croisette, so naturally there has been little news of substance anywhere else. Not that's there's even been much going on over there: Tetro, Bright Star, Taking Woodstock, Inglorious Basterds and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnanssus have all been seen and reviewed and most will now be largely shrugged off and forgotten in the long term. Only von Trier's Antichrist has managed to hold the headlines for more than one day, although seriously is anyone surprised at that. Here are some tiny stories that have come out over the week.

Weekend



This is very much a rumour at this point, but it seems that Sharon Stone fans are hotly anticipating that her next film will be a Quentin Tarantino collaboration. Maybe she's expecting a career revival (although by now you'd think someone would have noticed that he doesn't actually do those, ask Robert Forster if you don't believe me). Also signing on to the plotless project are Dennis Hopper, Jessica Biel and Kill Bill alumni Lucy Liu and Michael Madsen. Of course this might explain why Stone was looking so hot at the Inglorious Basterds premiere.



After the Wedding

Susanne Bier is clearly happy with the dailies for Jim Sheridan's remake of Brothers as she has now let Hollywood studies get their hands on another film from her back catalogue: After the Wedding. The plot surrouds a charity working coming back from India to obtain extra funding only to find an invite to a Wedding has profound implications to his future. Sounds intriguing (I've not seen the original) and with Tom Wilkinson heading the cast it could be one to watch.

Catalonia

George Orwell has an interesting non-relationship with film. His most commonly known narrative novels (Animal Farm and 1984) are virtually unfilmable, the first concerning animals taking over a farm and rejection of the Stalinist corruption of Communism and the second being a study of what freedom means in a dystopian future. But ignoring that there are moves afoot to make a film from his Spanish Civil war diaries, whether they will stick to the structure of the journalistic essays on life in the seperatist groups, the realities of trench warfare and his changing political views. Colin Firth and Kevin Spacey have signed up.



Thor

I should tell you some people I haven't heard of have joined the Thor cast, but frankly I can't remember their names.